Our Torah portions about Abraham and Sarah, Hagar and Ishmael this morning and then Abraham and Isaac tomorrow are amongst the scariest in the Torah. Many a rabbi has asked why are these the portions that we read year after year for Rosh Hashanah? Where is the joy? Where is the hope? Where is the promise?  

I have a new insight this year. Perhaps that’s why we read them year after year. Every year we confront these texts, and we learn something new.  

First, what is the challenge here? Abraham listens to his wife, and seemingly at G-d’s command, he throws Hagar and their son out of the camp with only a skein of water and a loaf of bread. They run out of water.  She’s scared. So scared she cries out, “Don’t let me look on and watch the death of the lad.” Not by name. Some lad. G-d hears the cry of that child, not Hagar, opens Hagar’s eyes and she sees the water that was there all along.  

In tomorrow’s portion, called the Akeda, the binding of Isaac. Again, seeming at the direction of G-d, Abraham is willing to sacrifice his son, his only son, the one he loves, Isaac. But again, an angel stops the action. Abraham opens his eyes and sees the ram instead.  

Abraham and Hagar are far from perfect parents. Yet, Hagar and Abraham both open their eyes, and they find another way.  

These days we talk a lot about trauma informed care and ACEs. Adverse Childhood Experiences. Isaac and Ishmael both experienced trauma. Both lived with the aftereffects of adverse childhood experiences. 

Yet, both cases are about finding another way. The message is simple. Don’t sacrifice your kids.  Again and again we need to find another way. Don’t give up.  

After these traumas, Abraham lost contact with both of his children. Isaac and Ishmael didn’t come back together until they buried their father. While it was too late for Abraham, the story gives me hope that we can come back together.  

Parenting can be difficult. Being a child can be difficult. Internet, electronics, social media, school shootings, work-life balance, extra curriculars, ACE,  

And yet, that little powerful word, yet.  It can be the joyful. Rewarding. Worthwhile. Meaningful. Hannah longed for a child. Cried for a child. Prayed for a child. Promised she would dedicate a child to G-d. Eventually she was rewarded for her earnestness and Samual arrived.  

Every week we sing about L’dor v’dor. From generation to generation. But in many generations the young ones seem to reject what the older people have done. Maybe, but maybe not. 

Yet we want them to learn something from us, some sense of connectedness, some sense of community, of values. 

We recently ran four workshops on Death and Dyning in the Jewish community. As part of the last session we talked about ethical wills. Those things we want to hand down to our children and grandchildren. As practice we wrote group ethical will for our own descendants. 

We hope. We encourage you to: 

•  Cherish your family and learn about the family you come from Work to keep your family together 
• Learn your family’s special recipe for things like Challah or chopped liver 
• Be courageous 
• Do your best 
• Treat others as you would like to be treated 
• Above all, be kind 

It’s like the song Forever Young:
May God bless and keep you always
May your wishes all come true
May you always do for others
And let others do for you

May you build a ladder to the stars
And climb on every rung
And may you stay forever young

Chorus:
Forever young, forever young
May you stay forever young

May you grow up to be righteous
May you grow up to be true
May you always know the truth
And see the light surrounding you

May you always be courageous
Stand up right and be as strong
And may you stay forever young

(Chorus X2)
May your hands always be busy
May your feet always be swift
May you have a strong foundation
When the winds of changes shift

May your heart always be joyful
May your song always be sung
And may you stay forever young

(Chorus X2)
May you grow up righteous and true
See the light surrounding you
May you grow up righteous and true
See the light surrounding you
 

As educators and rabbis what we hope what we are doing is creating lifelong Jewish memories. This past Sunday was no exception. Much of Judaism is very concrete. We use all our senses. We heard the sound of the shofar. We baked cinnamon challah and tasted pomegranate seeds. The building smelled divine.  And we wrote: 

 At Yom Kippur we chant an alef bet list of sins. This year, our students wrote an alef bet list of blessings that we hope for, that we wish for in our new year 5785. You will hear it later. These are the kinds of things that connect us, one generation to the next. 

 When the Israelites were standing at Sinai, we learn two midrashim. The first, before G-d gives us, we all stood at Sinai, the 10 Commandments, we are told that “our children are our guarantors.” The second that G-d created a voice just for young children. 

I tell this next story from the Talmud, usually at Tu B’shevat, the New Year of the Trees, but it is appropriate here on this Rosh Hashanah: 

One day, Honi the Circle Drawer was walking along the road when he saw a man planting a carob tree. Ḥoni said to him: This tree, after how many years will it bear fruit? The man said to him: It will not produce fruit until seventy years have passed. Ḥoni said to him: Wow, and you will live seventy years? You will wait that long to eat from this tree? The man said to him, just as my ancestors planted trees for me, I too am planting trees for my descendants. 

In Rachel Cowan’s Wise Aging, dedicated to the possibility of living the years ahead with joy, resilience and spirit, we learn that “becoming a grandparent means seeing one’s own children step into their positions as custodians of the future. But there is a cautionary note. “If we are wise and humble we will ask ourselves what we can do to support their growth and wellbeing without imposing our own sense of what their futures should look like.” 

This applies not just to our role as parents and grandparents, but also our role as synagogue leadership. 

We need to listen to our children, and their parents. They too are wise. Incredibly wise. When I asked people what they wanted to hear this Rosh Hashanah, the question came up 

“In a changing world of less synagogues and traditional communities, how can we make meaningful and unique experiences and traditions for the next generations?” 

It’s a good question. Look, we are still here. For thousands of years. We have outlived the Greeks, the Romans, the Assyrians and then some. For my father, it was less about the ritual ins and out, though for some, including me, those provide meaning, structure, stability. For my father it was about the ethics of Judaism, our commitment to education, and our very survival. 

That’s what we do at CKI, make meaningful, unique experiences.  

And yet…In every generation we sing a new song. The Psalms tell us so. Sing a new song to the Lord. We sing on Shabbat, “Or chadash. Cause a new light to shine.”  

It’s OK. That’s expected. That’s better than OK—it’s good. Every generation needs new experiences that represent them. New experiences. Nee music. New understandings. 

 We can’t do it for them or to them. We need to listen to them and find a way to provide the seeds. We need to help them find a way that this meaningful to them.  

Rabbi Harold Kushner in his book, How Good Do We Have to Be? Has a whole chapter on the love of Fathers and Sons, Mothers and Daughters. He begin the chapter saying that like many of us he was taught on Yom Kippur we have to atone for those things we had done to hurt other people before we could atone for our offenses against G-d. And that G-d would forgive us only when we had forgiven those who had hurt and disappointed us. That is exactly what it says in the Talmud. But as he grew older he learned that while the first half may be correct the second half may have it wrong. The whole chapter is worth reading. The whole book really. But his conclusion, “I don’t find it necessary to forgive my parents for the mistakes they made. It is no sin to be human. They were amateurs in a demanding game where even the experts can’t always get it right. Beyond forgiveness I love and admire them for all the good things they did, and I hope I have shown that love and admiration in the way they would have wanted me to, by passing on many of the those good qualities to my own daughter, eho I pray will find herself included to understand and to admire me.  

The conclusion of his entire book is that there is enough love to go around. Parents to children, children to parents, siblings, spouses. Those are those deep connections.  

The prophet Malachai, the last book of a prophet promises, yes, still promises,  

“Lo, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before the coming of the awesome, fearful day of GOD.  He shall reconcile parents with children and children with their parents, so that, when I come, I do not strike the whole land with utter destruction.” 

This gives me hope. The hearts of the children will be reconciled to their parents and the hearts of the parents will be reconciled with their children.” We can find another way. This is how we connect parents to children and children to parents. That’s what Rosh Hashanah is about. Easy? Maybe not. But doable. That gives me hope. 

From Wishes, Dreams, Blessings from our Youth:
We hope for:

Apples
The Best Year ever with balls and bananas
Courage and cookies and cats and dogs
Everything, especially exploring the environment
Fun, friends and frogs
Goodness in a good year
Hope, homes and Hebrew
Israel
Joy and Kindness
Love, light and life
Miracles and magic
Nicenes
Openness
Peace and 
Quiet
Rest and rainbows
Self respect and strength
Time
Understanding
Valor and values
Water
Xrays
Youthfulness and years
Zeal and Zen

I have a d’var Torah, a sermon written for tonight. However, before I can deliver it, there needs to be a new introduction. 

Tonight, we are going to talk about connections. Community. Relationships. We will. But first we need to pause. I am connected to Israel. To the land. To the people. To the State. It is a complicated relationship. But I am deeply connected. To the land that I have hiked. To the people, all of you, the stories I have learned from my earliest days, to the ethics that those stories and the thousands of years of commentary that it teaches, to each of you, to the Jewish people around the world.  to the country that I once lived in, to the dream of a place where Jews could live in freedom, without fear, without hatred.  

This past year has been impossibly difficult. This past week has been impossibly difficult. I am still connected to all of those things, I still believe in the dream. I still believe in the hope that Israel offers, I still believe.  

Some of you may feel connected to Israel. Some of you may not. Some of you may be sitting here tonight with a range of emotions, or no emotions at all. Some of you may wonder how we will ever find joy. How can we possibly celebrate Rosh Hashanah this year when time seemed to stop on Simchat Torah last year. Yet, as the saying goes “We will dance again.” Or as I read this week, “We will dance for them.”  

I hope you join me and will come back on Oct 6th for a Memorial for October 7th and all the lives lost and to remember the hostages. Then again on Kol Nidre to hear more formed thoughts. Tonight however, we pray for  a renewed commitment, connection to Israel. safety, for peace,  

And as always, we thank the Elgin Police Department for stepping up their coverage as Jewish institutions around the world have increased their security.  

Now for the real sermon: 

Imagine my surprise when I was at the grocery store and the newest Oprah magazine is called “The Power of Connection, Your guide to living joyfully. Building community, and finding deeper meaning in your life.” Wow! I bought the magazine without even thinking twice. Call it an impulse purchase. Or not. 

It is part of what we do here at CKI. We build community and create meaning. Hopefully we are joyful. After all, the Psalms teach us, “Ze hayom asah adonai. Nagila v’simcha bo. This is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it. So today, especially todayy, we say: Shanah Tovah. Happy New Year! The hope is it will be filled with joy. The reality as we have seen all too painfully, is that each year is filled with joy and pain. 

The joys include the little moments like watching our kids taste pomegranates for the first time or the dog practicing David Melech with me. Or the big moments, the baby namings, B-Mitzvah, graduations,  aufrufs, weddings. Pains can include health challenges, job losses, even deaths. Too many of those this year.  

That’s where community comes in. Together we celebrate. Together we support one another.  We laugh together and we cry together. 

For the next 10 days, and the rest of the year, we will learn about the Power of Connection. 

The beginning of this topic of connection at CKI came all the way back in April when the Torah School parents suggested it. Sitting around those round tables waiting for their students to be done with school and schmoozing about this new year they remarked that community is really about connection. And so, the yearly topic was born, long before Oprah’s magazine was on the market.  

It seems that what people want from/with community is connection. During the pandemic we were more isolated.  It has been hard to get that sense of connection and community back. Here and many other places. Yet, it was there then. It is here now.  Really. Come hang out with us on a Sunday morning. Join the Men’s Club for a Bears game or pizza. Say hello to someone you don’t know. Say hello to someone you haven’t seen in a while. And come to a shiva minyan. Hopefully not too many.  

We’re going to try that now. Introduce yourself to someone. Tell them something unique about you. That is how we are connected to each other. One to another. Understanding each other’s stories. Later you will get a bingo card. If you collect enough stickers, there will be a prize.  

The dictionary defines connection this way:
“Connection: a relationship in which a person, thing, or idea is linked or associated with something else.” 

Connections are important. They provide emotional support. They can offer comfort, validation and understanding in times of crisis or uncertainty, but really at any point. They foster a sense of belonging, purpose and happiness. Recently I participated in the first part of the strategic plan for U-46 going forward. One of the most important things U 46 wants for the kids, and the students themselves named it is a sense of belonging and safety. 

Connections provide a safe space to share joys, challenges and vulnerabilities. They can offer celebration, support and comfort. People want to be seen and heard. We need to meet people where they are.  

Connections can reduce isolation and can improve a friend’s sense of self-worth and confidence.  

Connections can provide an opportunity for shared experience creating lasting bonds and life long memories.  

Connections can provide loyalty. A friend who will stick by you through thick and thin and will provide emotional support. 

Connections can provide fun and laughter. We have member who always answers her work phone, “Can I help you plan some fun.” That always makes me smile. Fun and laughter can have therapeutic mental health benefits.  

The Jewish people understood the power of connection long before Oprah. 

If you are looking for Biblical sources, from the very beginning, G-d said, “It is not good for Adam, for man, to be alone.”  

Martin Buber talks about it when he talks about I-thou relationships. We are at our best when we have I-Thou relationships. In the I-Thou encounter, we relate to each other as authentic beings, without judgment, qualification, or objectification. I meet you as you are, and you meet me as who I am. In the I-Thou relationship, what is key is how I am with you in my own heart and mind. Conversely, it is the opposite in an I-It encounter, when we relate to another as object, completely outside of ourselves. 

Ron Wolfson took that concept and wrote a powerful book for our more modern times, Relational Judaism, where he argues that we don’t need more programming in synagogues, we need to find ways to better foster connections and community in our synagogues. He continues, It’s not about programs. It’s not about marketing.It’s not about branding, labels, logos, clever titles, website or smartphone apps. It’s not even about institutions. It’s about relationships. (page 2-3) He is a master storyteller and the book is well worth reading.  

What people desire in synagogues are relationships, friends.  

Maybe here is where I tell that old joke. Goldman comes to synagogue to talk to G-d. Goldberg comes to synagogue to talk to Goldman. That’s why we have things like Apples and Honey, Thank you Nikki and Gene and  Ellen and Risa. And Break-the-fast, Thank you, Barb Razowsky. That’s why there is book group, and Torah Study and Torah School. Choir. Sure, they are about lifelong learning, but they also build lifelong friends.  

That’s why we deliver goody bags to those who cannot get here. It helps connect people to their community. It helps them know that people here care and remember them. 

The studies all show that the isolation and loneliness are an epidemic. In 2018 only 16% of Americans felt very attached to their local community. Yet that sense of belonging and acceptance is what we crave. 

 https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/surgeon-general-social-connection-advisory.pdf 

“Each of us can start now, in our own lives, by strengthening our connections and relationships.” Vivek H. Murthy, M.D., M.B.A 

  Congregation Kneseth Israel helps break that cycle. This gives me hope.  

One of the things we need to work on as a society, as a community, is mental health. Across the board, our children, our adolescents and our adults. After our Unity on Division block party, designed to foster connections, community and fun, Pastor Dave Daubert and I were sitting quietly talking, we had just moved traffic cones and garbage cans because that’s what rabbis and ministers do these days. We were talking about mental health and he pointed out that he is most concerned about senior mental health, because the research shows that as we age not only our bodies age but our brains age causing increased mental health issues and increased isolation, and loneliness.   

The pandemic has been hard. Rising anti-semitism. The war in Israel. The personal losses and health challenges.  The ongoing sense of isolation and loneliness.  

“Today was a Difficult Day,” said Pooh.
There was a pause.
“Do you want to talk about it?” asked Piglet.
“No,” said Pooh after a bit. “No, I don’t think I do.”
“That’s okay,” said Piglet, and he came and sat beside his friend.
“What are you doing?” asked Pooh.
“Nothing, really,” said Piglet. “Only, I know what Difficult Days are like. I quite often don’t feel like talking about it on my Difficult Days either.
“But goodness,” continued Piglet, “Difficult Days are so much easier when you know you’ve got someone there for you. And I’ll always be here for you, Pooh.”
And as Pooh sat there, working through in his head his Difficult Day, while the solid, reliable Piglet sat next to him quietly, swinging his little legs…he thought that his best friend had never been more right.”
A.A. Milne 

What Piglet does is create a safe, non-judgmental space where Pooh can just be. That is part of what we do here at CKI.  

Soon you will hear more and more about a book I fell in love with, The Amen Effect, by Rabbi Sharon Brous.  

As a way to deepen the connections between people right here, we are going to try something new. Like many communities and cities, often driven by the library, we will do a One Book One Community Read. We will kick that off in November for National Jewish Book Month by reading as a whole community, The Amen Effect. There will be a program at Gail Borden in November. There will be other ways to participate. And taking a page from Oprah, every family will get a book. (But you have to wait until Yom Kippur. It takes a while to ship from Milwaukee.) 

Shortly after I finished it, Tish Calhamer from the Gail Borden Public Library, a dear friend and a significant partner with CKI called. She knew what our November Book Group Book should be. The Amen Effect. (Of course she says AMEN). Later Judi Tepe sent an email from Jonathan Shively who is the Executive Director of Fox Valley Hands of Hope, He had been referred to the book by Chaplain Ed Hunter, who heard about the book from me. The book has lots to say about connections. If I could sum it up quickly, she urges us, all of us to just show up. And so you have.   

There is a power in connection. Just ask Oprah. Connection and the community that comes with it brings me hope. Shana tova.  

Today’s writing comes from Carol Levine. A dear friend for decades from Massachusetts. She and Simon both worked at Wang. Remember Wang. She was a member of Temple Emanuel of the Merrimack Valley. Since we both have February birthdays we share a love of the water. Oceans in particular. She collects friends. All over the world. For a lifetime as her writing will show. But today, today, she saw that my daughter was at our favorite ice cream stand in our home town and she went to meet her. Just like that. This is what deep life long connections and friendships are about. 

In the fall of 1968, I fell in love with Carole King’s “Tapestry” album and especially with the title song. “My life has been a tapestry of rich and royal hue…”. When Margaret asked me to write, for her Elul blog, something about connections, my mind instantly went to that song, with all the rich imagery inherent in tapestries. A tapestry artist places strands of color into the warp, slowly creating tapestry images in a symphony of threads, shapes, colors, and textures. In some ways we are all tapestry artists, creating the unique tapestries of our lives through a pictorial symphony of threads, shapes, colors, and textures that bind us to so many people in our lives. You might say “One Tapestry To Bind Them All”. 

There’s a profound relationship between connections and gratitude. I am grateful every day for the myriad connections that have enriched my life. I am grateful every day that I am still connected to most of the people—family and friends—who have played meaningful roles in my life, in my development as a human being, from late teens to now. 

As a college freshman I had a crush on a junior. All the girls wanted to go out with him. He invited me to Winter Carnival, and I was so excited. Then he took me back to the dorm that night and ended the relationship. But the connection did not break that night. We stayed friends and, thanks to years of visits and correspondence, we are still friends, learning from one another. That thread between us is an important part of the tapestry. I learned to live with my broken heart and create a new friendship. I am grateful for that living connection. 

I spent my sophomore year in Israel, at the Institute for Jewish Youth Leaders from Abroad. 110 of us from all over the world participated. I fell in love with a young man. He gave me a pearl ring. We ‘plighted our troth’ to one another. Back home, he returned to Toronto, and I returned to college at UMASS. We phoned. We wrote. And then one day he drove non-stop to see me at UMASS. Oh, how I loved that exotic bit of thread in my tapestry! Years passed and there was a falling out; the thread was still there but faded, the connection tenuous. Then one day, while visiting Kathy, a friend from the Israel year, the phone rang. It was my old friend, calling Kathy to apologize for any way he had not treated her well. She told him that I was with her, and he asked to speak to me, too, so that he could apologize. Thus began a new connection with him; for years now, we have been building a new friendship through email, letters, and phone calls. I have learned much from him, and I am grateful for that living connection. 

After college I lived in England for several years. There I met a Scottish woman who has now been my friend for 55 years. The thread of that friendship has always been thick, bright, and colorful, as we traveled through life’s stages together – work, travel, motherhood, bar mitzvah of my son, weddings (my son, her son), and milestone birthdays. Over the years she has become family, and friends with my friends, and I have become family, and friends with her friends. I am grateful for that living connection. 

In 1979 I took a night school class in accounting. I eventually connected with the teacher through a mutual love of photography. We became close friends until the spring when we both started feeling a whole different connection—17 years later he is family, and friends with my friends, and I have become family, and friends with his friends. I am grateful for that living connection. 

There are so many more people who have been important threads in the tapestry of my life. I am grateful for all those connections that sustain me in trying times and bring me joy over and over. 

Carol Levine 

Yesterday I wrote about connecting through books. Today’s words come from Tish Calhamer, the Community Engagement Librarian for the Gail Borden Public Library. Of course we connect through books And so much more. Music. She has been instrumental (pun intended) in Chamber Music on the Fox, and the amazing Violins of Hope program and display here in Elgin last year. Cooking. Restaurants. Gardening. Making the world a better place with things like the Martin Luther King Commission, the YWCA, Women on the Brink and so much more.

Here are her words about connections:

Not everyone is a big fan of Facebook, but I am. Facebook is seen as the invasion of privacy, the domain of trolls, Mark Z’s moneymaker. I love Facebook for one reason, one word: connection. Facebook has allowed me to connect with old high school friends that I didn’t even realize I wanted to connect with. I have connected with my cousins in the Dominican Republic that I lost touch with when our mothers were no longer around to keep family communication up and open. I have connected with people I don’t know but share things in common: people who like cats, grew up in Chicagoland, females born between 1965-1980 and weary of your crap; who love Johnny Cash and Scandinavian artists; looking for healthy recipes, looking for baby goats wearing pajamas, and looking for used bookshelves in decent condition (to be picked up safely in front of the police station.) 

I remember talking and giggling with my best friend on the way to school, during school, and walking home from school. Then I’d stretch the cord of our putty-colored rotary phone from the kitchen into the hallway and talk and giggle until my dad would yell that I was going to yank the phone off the wall. The connection I had with my friend was stronger than the phone’s connection to the wall! Decades later, Liking a post or sharing a video of baby goats wearing pajamas brings me that same feeling of connection. A word or two tapped out on a friend’s page uplifts my spirits—I’ve reached out and now we’re not alone. We share a thought for a moment. We know that we are in each other’s thoughts and hearts. We abide in our connection even after clicking on the X on the screen. 

Tish Calhamer 

This is the end of the week that we mark as National Banned Book Week. My parents owned a book store in the 80s. The American Booksellers Association together with the American Library Association sponsored this week and we participated every single year. I still have my buttons that we wore in the store. Books are important. Reading is important. One of the reasons is that it connects us to each other. The discussions about books deepen our knowledge and our ability to think critically and problem solve. I have been part of several book groups. The friendships that they have built are friendships that have lasted a life time. I read books for the CKI book group. I don’t go to the book selection meeting as a general rule so they pick and I read a wider range of books. I read cookbooks, biographies, memoirs, mysteries, books that friends suggest. Those discussions can connect me to people here or across the miles. Most books I read I write a review on a platform called goodreads. This also connects me to others. These days reading and libraries are under attack. It is hard to find independent book stores. Libraries add so much to our lives. They are true community builders. The Gail Borden Public Library here in Elgin offers books, obviously, and so much more. Meeting space. Classes and Events. Early voting. Passport services. DMV Services. Videos. Games. Children’s play space. Digital Media Lab. So much more.  
I don’t understand why some find books and libraries so threatening. Jews are known as People of the Book. Keep reading.

Part Two with Two More Exquisite  Photographs from Chaplain Ed Hunter:

As he said before:
Ponder on these images and so how they connect with your journey of life and reflection at this holy time. 

Look to how the images may help you think of your experience as they remind you of how images like these help us remember our connections with others and how important they can be.   

We continue to learn and grow in life.  As we seek out to build new connections and perhaps rebuild them, or  

remember what they meant or might mean for you, as you continue experience the gift of life with each other. 

The RED Stairway….. what stairs have you climbed or descended that have brought to a higher or lower place in your life? 

The Snow Bridge …. The seasons of the year bring sun and rain and snow and darkness… the seasons of our life connections 

Today’s reflection comes from our dear friend, Chaplain Ed Hunter. I say “ours” because he is a friend to so many. I say “ours” because he and I serve on several non-profit boards together. I ofen describe Ed as the chaplains’ chaplain. He is connected to so many. 

Here is Ed’s writing and his photography, some of which, like mine, will be at Fox Valley Hands of Hope art auction in October. 

In regard to the topic of connections, there are so many ways to reflect on what is a connection.  Personal for each one of us.  

Birth connections, marriage connections, religious community connections, work connections, social connections, historical  connections, etc…  

Some of us have experienced connections that lasted for a brief moment or others last a lifetime.  Some are vital and some are mundane. 

Some are life giving and some restrict our lives. 

Some change us forever… influencing the path we take in this life. 

Some we cherish and others we regret. 

I invite you to the take these words and the images to help you look are your own connections,   

Ponder on these images and so how they connect with your journey of life and reflection at this holy time. 

Look to how the images may help you think of your experience as they remind you of how images like these help us remember our connections with others and how important they can be.   

We continue to learn and grow in life.  As we seek out to build new connections and perhaps rebuild them, or  

remember what they meant or might mean for you, as you continue experience the gift of life with each other. 

 The RED Stairway….. what stairs have you climbed or descended that have brought to a higher or lower place in your life?  (Picture in next post)

The Snow Bridge …. The seasons of the year bring sun and rain and snow and darkness… the seasons of our life connections. (Picture in the next post)

The Floating Lantern…… breaking through the darkness to help us remember connections of our past and perhaps our future   

The Stretch of Tree Limbs … like branches on a tree, we all grow in different directions yet our roots remain as one.  

Bless your CONNECTIONS 

Chaplain Ed Hunter 

We have looked at a variety of forms of connection. Today we are going to examine the connections one feels if you know that people are praying for you if you are sick. My friend, Jeanne Davies, posted this quote this morning, “Rarely if ever, are any of us healed in isolation. Healing is an act of communion.” Bell Hooks 

Every week, Friday and Saturday, I ask for names that we are concerned about for healing, of mind, body and spirit. Some people come with a list prepared. Some, including me, forget during the sharing portion and then have to add another name later. People smile at each other, notice if someone is off the list, ask questions later.  

Most often we sing Debbie Friedman’s Mi Sheberach song,  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHKo3CjuzpY 

 Mi shebeirach avoteinu
M’kor hab’racha l’imoteinu
May the source of strength
Who blessed the ones before us
Help us find the courage to make our lives a blessing
And let us say Amen 

Mi shebeirach imoteinu
M’kor habrachah l’avoteinu
Bless those in need of healing with r’fuah sh’leimah
The renewal of body, the renewal of spirit
And let us say Amen 

It connects us, one to another. I also really like the El Na Refa na la, from Hadassah Hospital: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0D72zDZCI4 

Simply translated, G-d, please bring healing.  

There have been many studies that show that knowing that people are praying for you, however we see praying, may help in the healing. That’s connection. If you know someone cares, that helps. That’s connection. Recently the John Templeton Foundation, published this study, https://www.templeton.org/news/what-can-science-say-about-the-study-of-prayer  

Whether yes or no, we will continue to offer prayers of healing, as they help the individual and they help us as a community, stay connected, one to another.  

Today’s words come from Professor Ivy Helman, PhD, I knew her first in Lowell, MA at Temple Emanuel of the Merrimack Valley. We have stayed in contact all these years. She is now teaching at Charles University in Prague. I am all the way in Elgin. We are still friends.

Connecting to the Divine in Nature  

“So it was always, the cloud covered the Tent of Meeting [during the day] and there was an appearance of fire at night.”  Numbers 9:16. 

 One of my favorite images of the divine is the one here: a pillar of cloud during the day and one of fire at night.  This pillar guided the Israelites as they wandered through the desert on their way to the Promised Land.  There are many connections that can be drawn from such a verse and I hope that the two ideas I am providing here for reflection might resonate with you as we prepare ourselves to reconnect with each other and the divine in the approaching High Holy Days. 

 In the pillar of cloud and fire, I am struck by how close the divine is to the people.  They can see the divine presence and that presence guides them throughout the desert.  Where is the divine guiding us?   

More importantly, I think, the Israelites were able to recognize the divine within the cloud and fire, and they connected with the divine by following the presence through the desert.  Where can we recognize the divine in our day-to-day lives and how do we connect with the presence?   

I also find comfort in the use of nature imagery which connects the divine to the world around us.  It is not that divinity and nature, in this image of cloud and fire, are distinct entities.  Rather, they are one in the same.  There is no difference here between divinity and nature.  There is a lesson here I think in how we connect to the natural world around us.  Do we honor nature’s profound connection to the divine?  How? 

 Assistant Professor/ Odborná asistentka
Charles University/ Univerzita Karlova v Praze

feminismandreligion.com 

Yesterday we heard from Rabbi Katy Allen, 

Today I want to include the Earth Etude I wrote this year. It is about trees. Rabbi Nachman of Bratzlav said that we should spend an hour outside in nature, pouring our souls out to G-d.  

Rabbi Nachman of Bratzlav said that we should spend an hour every day outside amongst the trees 

“Grant me the ability to be alone; may it be my custom to go outdoors each day among the trees and grass – among all growing things and there may I be alone, and enter into prayer, to talk with the One to whom I belong. May I express there everything in my heart, and may all the foliage of the field – all grasses, trees, and plants – awake at my coming, to send the powers of their life into the words of my prayer so that my prayer and speech are made whole through the life and spirit of all growing things, which are made as one by their transcendent Source. May I then pour out the words of my heart before your Presence like water, O L-rd, and lift up my hands to You in worship, on my behalf, and that of my children!” 

Debbie Friedman set it to music:: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEH9hipVb8w 

Here is what my Earth Etude said, published on Jewcology:

https://jewcology.org/2024/09/earth-etude-for-elul-21-2/  

Here it is:
“Winter, Spring, Summer or Fall…”
Trees are like friends. Torah is a Tree of Life, so says Proverbs. We sing this as part of the Torah service. “It is a tree of life to them that hold fast to it and all its paths are peace.”   

. Each day when I go out for a walk, I say hello to these very trees. Winter, spring, summer and fall. They keep me grounded. Quite literally.
 

But imagine a world without trees. Without seasons. As our continues to heat up, it could happen. Research has shown that this summer, now drawing to an end, was the hottest recorded.
 

But there may be hope. Those trees may actually be trees of life. In Chelsea, MA two years ago I heard news that there was a pilot project, a test site if you will, to plant trees.
 

What they found was that planting trees could dramatically cool an area and was a long-term investment. 

“So, the white roof and new pavement could help cool the area more quickly, however, the trees are a longer-term investment in shade. Chelsea’s Cool Block will be loaded with pretty much every intervention to control heat, while other cities are trying one intervention at a time. Ariane Middel, who studies heat and urban design at Arizona State University in Phoenix, says, “It makes sense to concentrate cooling in rising hot spots.” 

Listen to NPR’s All Things Considered on how a test site can cool cities in the summer! 

This summer, I heard a similar story. As reported in the New York Post:
“Urban tree canopies and green spaces are our most potent weapons against the collision of the UHIE (Urban Heat Island Effect) and climate change. Unlike air conditioning, which often cuts out when everyone cranks up their units — exactly when it is needed to save lives — vegetation’s cooling effect grows the hotter an area gets. Large plants like trees and shrubs not only shade our homes on the days when the sun is most powerful, but they also cool our environment through evapotranspiration. [Evapotranspiration is when water evaporated from the soil surface into the atmosphere through the leaves of plants. – Ed.] Even a young tree has a net cooling effect equivalent to 10 room-size air conditioners operating for 20 hours a day. Within 15 years, the effect doubles.”
 

Now, like with Jews, where you get two Jews and three opinions, a google search will quickly tell you there is a range of opinions on this. Will trees help reduce climate change? I don’t know for sure. But I figure it can’t hurt. And it will add to the world’s beauty and keep us rooted. Just what I need spiritually before Rosh Hashanah. As the old Talmudic story goes, “Just as my ancestors planted for me, so I will plant for my children and grandchildren.”
 

Join me in planting a tree.